66-year-old Indian held for killing teenage stepsons, wife serious

Vancouver, June 23 (IANS) An elderly Indian man was arrested Monday in the city of Surrey near here for killing his two teenage stepsons and seriously injuring his much younger wife in a family shoot-out. Mahendra Singh Johal, 66, was produced in court for the murder of 17-year-old Amarjit Gill and 15-year-old Ranjit Gill and the attempted murder of his 35-year-old wife Sukhwinder Kaur (Johal) Sunday.

The woman, who worked as a cleaner, is struggling for life in hospital.

She had moved to Canada last year with her two sons after marrying the much older Johal who is a long-time Canadian resident.

Johal has been charged with the second-degree murder of the two teens and, if convicted, faces life behind bars.

Neighbours said they knew nothing about the woman and her two teenaged sons as she had moved here from Punjab just eight months ago.

They said they would often hear a lot of violence in the family and the woman was planning to move out with her two sons to live separately.

The neighbours also gave different versions of the relationship of the man with the woman and her two young sons.

Some said they were told by the woman and her two sons that the old man was their uncle.

Others said they were told by the woman that her husband had died in an accident in India.

Still others said the young woman had married the arrested man despite their 31-year age gap just to realise her dream to come to Canada.

But that dream now lies shattered with the woman struggling for her life and her two teenage sons dead.

Police could not confirm what weapon Johal used to allegedly kill the two teenagers and seriously injure their mother.

However, the crime scene bore bullet marks on the windows.

This is the fourth case of women being murdered by their Indian Canadian husbands in Surrey city during the past three years.

Apart from family violence in South Asian families here, the city is also notorious for its drug gang violence which has claimed dozens of young lives over the years.